• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Ranchers.net

I'm sure the packers are paying the Canadians $34 per cwt less so they can lower their prices to sell cheaper beef to the poor and starving of the world :???: ...RIGHT :wink: ... Isn't that what the Packer Groups were telling us? :roll:


Lackluster cattle prices
by Kevin Hursh

A major price spread has again developed between Canadian and American prices for fed cattle.

Sandy Russell, a beef economist with Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food says the spread is currently as high as $34 per cwt. That works out to about $450 on a typical fed steer.

Back in mid-February when an early March opening of the border to live Canadian cattle was expected, the spread was as narrow as $15 per cwt.

Russell says most Canadian feedlots are losing money at current fed cattle prices, having bought calves under the assumption of a better market than currently exists.

As for feeder cattle, the price of 500 to 600 pound steer calves in Saskatchewan has been averaging about $1.15 a pound, as compared to $1.21 at the same time last year.

Some of the calves coming to market are enrolled in the government set-aside program and cannot be slaughtered until either October of 2005 or January of 2006. Russell says set-aside calves are being discounted in the marketplace with the amount varying widely from one week to another and one auction market to another.
Top